Hot 



Weather Brings 

 Out Snakes 



Fights With Cobras 



'T'HK sunny weather of the past few weeks lias brought 



snakes out of winter jiibernation, and they have 



been seen in numbers from Somerset West to l-'ish Hoek. 



GAS TO KILL 

 MAMBA 



Durban Docks 

 Encounter 



Durban. Tuesday. 



JANUARY 



O^ Oy^. 



ierer's 



SSu 



H. T. de ' 



nger who 



the 



Mountain 'just above 

 Vredehoek. has seen several 

 boomslangs jn the trees near 

 her home, three of them within 

 50 yards of her hdn.e anc 

 (in her garden hedge. 

 ' A yellow cobra, which 

 wounded by the labourers 

 year, paid a return visit U 

 labourers* cutlage last week, but 

 again escaped death. 



BO(»MSLANGS 



1?S 



i!:'iV.i;'';::.l,;- ,i!."'i .._ 



voir the other day and followed 

 this up by killing t\vo vlci 

 ladders a Jew yards from his 

 front door. 



The vlei adder resembles a 

 small pufTadder. 



Snakes have been seen by 

 hikers on Signal Hill and by 

 motorists on the Kommeljic 

 Road at Fish Hoek. A Camps 

 Bay man saw two on his front 

 sloep. 



Mr. John de Beer, mechanic. 



£., "^'iea'i was cycling along 



Flora Road towards Steentierg 



when he saw a long yellow 



cobra slithering acro.s.>i the 



road into a clump of bushes. 



He dismounted, set the bushes 



alight, armed himself with an 



iron bar and waited for the 



cobra to emerge. He did not 



have to wait long 



With one blow he smashed the 



snake's back and pulped 



head. The : 



meet long. 



Captain B. G. Godlonton, who 

 IS convalescing from a severe 

 Illness on his farm Nooilgedachl, 

 Somerset West, was taking a 

 stroll with his wife, a blind, 

 wire-haired terrier, and two cats 

 which invariably follow. 

 They had Just crossed a small 



bridge at the Imttom of the rose 

 garden when Mrs. Godlonton, 

 who was in front, shouted: 

 "Look at that huge cobra!" She 

 grabbed up the blind terrier, 

 which sensed there was some- 

 thing wrong and was exposed to 

 (he danger of being bitten by 

 jumping about ejo-iledly. 



Captain Godlortton could see 

 the snake moving through the 

 grass. Although in a feeble state 

 of health he gave chase. The 

 ' e was streaking away when 

 he brok^ its back with one blow 

 from the handle end of his ash 

 ing stick. 



Mattsson. of the Durban Port 

 Health Department yesterday. 

 A Native found the snake 



side. He called Mr. 



on the dock- 



fetclied a cyarude gas-pump, and 

 Played the gas on to the snake, 

 driving it out o! its hiding placc_ 

 As the dazed mamba emerged 

 Mr. Mattsson kicked 

 knocked it 

 by the t 



jllke 



This 



, over. Then he grabl 

 ail and flailed it arm 

 ip until It was dea< 

 the first snake that 

 n in the area tor st 



^^2>ff'^>y « '/^ ^''f^f 



TALK 



Mr. Francois Erasmus, Minister of 

 ! and colonels o( the Cape Command 

 than a suspicion of wind, their jaunt 

 I would have been a long-rcmembered 

 ape Town to-day — soldiers of yester- 



conjurcs up nauseating memories. The 



1, shine or howling south-easter, carried 



ng the war years. 



I 



at the Tavern 



of the Seas 



\ Great 



i 



Snakes 



BOOM ON SNAKE MARKET 



From Our Correspondent 

 PORT EUZABETH, Saturday. 



WELCOME rains which 

 eased drought conditions 

 In thl« area last week also 

 brought an end to the Port Eliza- 

 beth Snake Park's seijous snake 

 shortage. 



The rains brought snakes out 

 of hiding, and rlnghals. cobras 

 and puff-adders are now making 

 themselves at home In suburbs 



like Walmer, Mill Park and New- 

 ton Park. 



Natives and Coloureds have 

 been talking advantage of the 

 prices ottered by the Park thla 

 ■ ■ ^-' — ' — tn many 



The Snake Park needs many 

 more puff-adders, cobras and | 

 rlnghals for the extraction of ] 

 venom, used In the manufacture 

 of snake bite antidote. 



u-^.y^9i,,9fj 



J nearly five 



cobra I have ever 



6tt. 9ln. from fangs to 



tail-tip. 



Mr Basham-Brown 

 (photographed alongside 

 with his trophy) tells me 

 he killed the snake on his 

 farm at Durbanville last 

 evening. Labourers had 

 warned him that there was 

 a cobra about, and he was 

 — verj' gingerly, he admits 

 —looking for It with a 

 stick. To my mind, it took 

 no little nerve to dispatch 



Basham-Brown. 



This is the .second cobra 

 le has killed in Durban- 

 'lUe. The first was live 



the Editor 



w ixciii s or .N/ ni 



(Sec slorv. "Cn-al Snake: 



SNAKE PARK BITE 



Cape Times Correspondent 

 DURBAN. — An attendant at 

 the Durban Snake Park, Mr. 

 Richard Duncan, 27, was bitten 

 on the finger on Saturday after- 

 noon by a ringhals which he 

 was exhibiting to visitors. He 

 was taken to Addington Hospital 

 and treated with anti-snake bite 

 lerum. c^ /■.—►. Pt.t;ijmt 



"Monster" Was a Snake 

 Riding on a Tree 



Mombasa, Friday. 

 ^N assistant-inspector J. T. Brennan. in charge of the pott 



f MtbL^HaTbir-ytLS "' '"^ "■' ""^"^ "•-""•• 

 A.ncatr^z^jx:^,^3%t„~,,!rrhe:d 



^''" wi'n""" said the root could not have been iK, 



pS^.nd'ir'r """ '"■™' .^"'.-"'l"- -bmer'ge f^lot 

 perioos, and it was now a monili «in^. .k. •• ■ •• - ' 



■TUFF-ADDERS DO 

 NOT STRIKE 

 BACKWARDS' 



To Vie Editor. The Argus 



SIB. — In last Friday's 

 article on "The Outdoor 

 World" Dr. S. H. Skailc 

 savs that pufl-adders do 

 no"t strike backwards. 



If you tread on a snakes 

 tail he must strike back- 

 wards, and that is prac- 

 tically the only way or time 

 a puff-adder will strike. It 

 is. as Dr. Skaife says, a 

 very sluggish snake. 



The cobra or mamba 

 may make a frontal attack 

 when disturbed or 

 frightened. 



W. J. REID. 

 Obsen'atory. 



/./V TOWN 

 TO-DAY: 



THE shopping list carried by 

 Joseph P Morgai.. 

 electrician of the freighter Airican 

 lun, now in port, is. to say the 

 east, unusual. 

 During the six weeks 

 he east coast to Mon 

 .■^ck Mr. Morgan wants to buy: 

 s. penguins, six cobras. 12 Mbras, 

 a pair of croco- 

 diles, a giraffe, 

 a warthog. a 

 hyena, a pair 

 ol chimpanzees, 

 1 a ba- 

 palr of 

 , leopards, some 

 Cape monitors 

 (large lizards), 

 few Serai 



Cobras On His Shopping List 



seen — Sapa-Reutei 



first 



tt^ 6i^^^^.dh:3t,(<jif 



Python in the 



Pylon Put Paid 



to Power 



"Sunday Times" Corresponden 

 FORT VICTORIA (S.R|, 

 Saturday.— Fort Victoria had 

 a complete " black out " for a 

 whole night recently when a 

 anake short-rlrcalled the 

 power lines. A storm was 

 raging and the fault was 

 thought to be caused by the 

 lightning. It was found l?ter 

 that a six-foot python had 

 called Itself at the lop of a 

 power pylon eight miles from 

 the town, causing a short 

 sofflclenl to cause the whole 

 s.Tslem to fall. , _ 



pair of 



ostrich 



B e s pectacled 

 . Morsoii and slight. Mr. 

 Morgan is buy- 

 ing the animals on commission for 

 the Baltimore Zoo. The Farrell 

 Line assists him in any way it can 

 by providing deck space. 



"This is only mv second voyage." 

 he told me as we chatted in his 

 cabin. "Last trip I took back an 

 albino leopard, two ordinary 

 leopards, three hyenas and t' 

 pythons. ThU voyage I expect 



"Dr Kruger. of the Gua 

 Islands Administration is getting 

 the penguins tor me. and the ship 

 will provide 

 them if the 

 going back to New York. 



"So tar 

 carrying my specime 

 "One of my greatest 

 keep the passengers 



ance to protect myself and the 

 shipping company against the 

 animals and reptiles Injuring 

 people " 



Mr Morgai 

 day to take back to America a pair 

 of Congo gorillas. "Oh boyl 

 Wouldn't they cause a stir on 

 Broadway." 



* * * 

 OLIDAYING in Cape Town Is 

 Philip Britton. formerly 

 Baittswo 

 Training ^llege. Wyijls^rg, 



vlipther 

 nging i 



limplc English nursery 

 nior choir rendering 



been lucky 



ambition 



class of youngsters 

 n/ong 

 rhyme 



; more ambitious. llkeBach or 

 the effect is always lovely, 

 special /ourse for 

 ■ irted at St. 

 Training College, near 



the Natives. I 

 preserve and 



Airican traditional 



very lovely." 



dafM. (m^X^- j'a^y^^-^ I 3, ^<j^^q 



